Mikel Arteta predicted that any team hoping to win the Premier League would have to acquire \u201cover 90 points.\u201d That benchmark assumes winning runs that neither Arsenal nor Manchester City have managed this season. With the run-in still to play, there are clear scenarios that would hand the title to one side earlier than most expect.<\/p>\n
Arsenal retain a straightforward theoretical route to the championship as early as May 10. For the Gunners to end a 22-year trophy drought with two games to spare, Manchester City must take no more than two points from their next three fixtures: April 22 Burnley, May 4 Everton and May 9 Brentford. If City meet that restrictive return, Arsenal would then need to beat Newcastle (April 25), Fulham (May 2) and West Ham at the London Stadium (May 10).<\/p>\n
Manchester City, by contrast, would likely lift the title later. If their game-in-hand against Crystal Palace is scheduled for May 22 as expected (but not yet confirmed), City can theoretically clinch on the weekend of May 17. That route requires City to win against Burnley (April 22), Everton (May 4) and Brentford (May 9) while Arsenal falter in their corresponding fixtures. The decisive weekend on May 17 would hinge on results such as Arsenal vs Burnley and Bournemouth vs Man City, with City needing to avoid defeat or Arsenal failing to win.<\/p>\n
There is also the real possibility the race reaches the final day on May 24. If both teams win all remaining matches, they would finish level on 82 points. Given how close they are on goal difference and goals scored, head-to-head could be used. In that event, City would be crowned champions, having beaten Arsenal at the Etihad after the north London meeting produced a draw earlier in the season.<\/p>\n
The season finishes with Arsenal at Crystal Palace and City at home to Aston Villa. The draft scenarios underline how fine margins, scheduling and a few unexpected results will determine whether the title is settled early or decided in the closing hours of the campaign.<\/p>\n
Arsenal: Reverse fixture 1-0 win. Record over last five games W4 D1 L0. Record at venue over last five games W4 D0 L1.<\/p>\n
Man City: Reverse fixture 1-0 loss. Record over last five games W2 D0 L3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Scenarios show Arsenal could secure the title on May 10; City could wrap it up by May 17. Final run.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12508,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,1056,172],"tags":[1162],"class_list":["post-12509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-man-city","category-epl","tag-analytics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}